What ever you decide your race strategy is going to be. Whether you run the first ten or the last ten or do all intervals, the important thing is to run your long training runs with the same strategy. This will be a great way to find out what works and what doesn’t.
FYI 10 miles is very close to 38% of 26.2 miles
Being that this is your first full marathon you will undoubtedly hear two things more than anything else. Never do anything new on race day and don’t start your race to fast. The second one is a lot harder to do than it sounds.
Running in the snow or at least hard packed snow is actually pretty easy, I’ve been doing it for a few years now. Sleet, slush and ice on the other hand not so much. I have a couple of friends that use yak traks or something like that in icy conditions and they felt that they did a good job of keeping their footing.
Have a great race and we will see you in January.